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| Do No Harm, Do Know Harm |
It is no secret that I absolutely loath my S&W M&P duty gun. I knew I had a full day of firearms training and at the end, two qualification courses coming up, so I decided to bring that boat anchor home and practice some dry-firing. I did something around 100+ dry fires a night for a few nights prior to the day's training. I knew it was paying off when they were making us run 50 yard's between each single shot (and I'm fat!) of our 15 round mag. When I got done, I had a nice little 2"x 3" hole in my target, and my heart rate was about 140 beats a minute. I always knew that dry-firing was good practice, but damn...I don't think I actually appreciated how much of a difference it makes. I did very well on all the other stages, out-shooting the rest of my team, and qualified at 100% at the end of the night. I don't think I've shot 100% since I carried my old HK USP .45, or maybe my Glock 23 when I was a detective. I usually do mid to high 90s with that damn M&P and its horrid trigger. I'll be doing a lot more dry-firing. I'm impressed. Although my wife is not a fan of me pretending to shoot at light switches during her TV shows all evening  Knowing what one is talking about is widely admired but not strictly required here. Although sometimes distracting, there is often a certain entertainment value to this easy standard. -JALLEN "All I need is a WAR ON DRUGS reference and I got myself a police thread BINGO." -jljones | ||
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Told cops where to go for over 29 years… |
There is this guy, pretty smart fella, stops in on this forum from time to time who seems to think Dry-fire practice is pretty darn important. He has even penned a lot of words on the subject. Now, I am no genius, but my daddy did teach me that when smart people talk, I should listen... Zen and the art of hitting stuff - Bruce Gray ”We can separate the skills associated with practical handgun marksmanship into three rough sets: aiming, trigger control and tactical gun handling. In my experience, handgun shooting errors are invariably trigger control related, though most shooters tend to ascribe large groups and missed shots to incorrect aim, poor vision or a “bad grip”. Blaming your sights is praying to a false idol. Let’s assume sight regulation is OK for now. I’ll go so far as to say that just about every person I’ve ever worked with had the ability to see and focus on their aligned sights, and hold that alignment well enough to shoot a very small group. However, few have had the ability to press the trigger well enough to exploit their aiming skills without considerable training. So, I agree with those who counsel dry firing. I’d say dry firing is far more important than any other single thing you can do to build your fundamental skills. I do not think it will hurt your pistol as much as shooting poorly can hurt you. Shooters generally seem to “flinch” (which we can define here as a failure to press the trigger and release the hammer without disturbing the sights, and/or to follow through during the entire shot) for two basic reasons: The first is performance anxiety. By it’s nature, shooting is an exercise in truthful self-realization: the bullet hits or misses, whether completely or by degrees. Everyone wants to “do well” and not look like an idiot in front of others. Without intending to make broad gender-based generalizations, women are less prone to succumbing to this anxiety (and in fact often do better in marksmanship training as a result), whereas men do tend to become more ego-involved in the results to the detriment of their skill development. In any event, those who have been highly conditioned to feel potent and capable (such as law enforcement officers and other highly trained professionals) will tend to identify strongly with symbols of that potency to support their self image. Nothing in American society symbolizes this potency more than the gun. It follows that when presented with an objective test of competency that challenges one’s illusory self-image, even highly educated and successful new shooters will freak out and fail. This is the person who shakes his or her head in growing frustration at each “bad” shot. In reality, shooting is pretty darn easy; it’s just the shooter’s highly personal investment in results that makes it difficult...” Full article - https://grayguns.com/zen-and-t...rt-of-hitting-stuff/ What part of "...Shall not be infringed" don't you understand???  | |||
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| Member |
Nice! How would you rate the 'average' skill of your fellow officers? (CMPD, correct?) -------------------------------- Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. | |||
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| The Whack-Job Whisperer  |
Good job!  Maybe the city will buy you some nice Glocks to replace those POS guns.Guilford County dumped the m&p and got G17s for patrol and G19s for Detectives and admin. Everyone is VERY pleased with the change, although not everyone is happy going from 45 to 9mm. Good luck! Regards 18DAI 7+1 Rounds of hope and change | |||
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Only the strong survive |
Find a cub that has Bullseye shooting matches and you will see your accuracy and confidence go way up the first year. 41 | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us  |
You don’t normally take it home?? ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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Member |
Good on you for practicing dry fires before going to shoot your quals. Every trigger press done in training is another step toward winning the fight. Stay strong and be safe out there! CMSGT USAF (Retired) Chief of Police (Retired) | |||
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Fighting the good fight |
Great job! Can you explain a bit more about your qualifications? Here in Arkansas, it's a 500 point qualification. 50 shots at various distances and positions, with up to 10 points per shot. Uses a B-27 silhouette target with a small 10 ring (slightly larger than a notecard), a 9 ring, an 8 ring, and a 7 ring. Anything outside the 7 ring is 0 points. I've seen some excellent shooters get 498 (99.6%) and 499 (99.8%), but I've never personally seen a perfect 500 (100%). I typically shoot a 485ish (~97%), with most shots in the 10 ring, a smattering in the 9 ring (typically low/left during some of the longer range shots), and an occasional couple in the 8 ring from jerking the trigger. IIRC, my best ever was a 494, back when I was younger and single, and ammo was cheap, so I had the time and money to practice quite a bit more. 400+ (80%) is considered passing by the state, but that's way too low, IMO... I've seen some awful shooters still qualify. 
At some agencies (like I assume both of ours do), the officers head to work in uniform, and go home in uniform, so the gear and duty gun goes home with them at the end of each shift. With other agencies, especially in big cities, the officers head to work in street clothes and change into uniform in the locker room, then change out at the end of the shift and go back home in street clothes. The gear and duty gun often stay at the station, and the officer carries a different gun concealed to/from work. | |||
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| Do No Harm, Do Know Harm |
As far as average scores, I expect we fall within the normal bell curve on ability. A few officers get their guns taken every year until they can qualify, most shoot 80s-90s, and a few shoot high 90s/100. Special teams get more range time, and are expected to shoot more betterer. There is no real "open range" days for people who want to shoot extra, except for the ones that score below a certain percentage, 85% for example. As far as taking that gun home, I always carry my Kahr PM9 to and from work, and often in conjunction with my Glock 19. I detest that M&P and always leave it. I go in before shift and work out, shower, and get ready there. The majority of us do not have take-home cars, so we commute in our personal vehicles in plain clothes.
Our scoring sounds nearly identical, except we can get 5 points per shot instead of 10, halving the total potential score (Perfect = 250 rather than 500). We were doing night quals (and combat quals, which is just pass/fail) This is the course of fire we use for night quals, or something very close to it (also on a B-27 target):
8 ring and in counts as a full hit (5 points). I had everything inside the 9 ring except for 2 in the 8 ring. 7 ring is 4 points Black outside the 7 is 3 points White or a miss is 0 Knowing what one is talking about is widely admired but not strictly required here. Although sometimes distracting, there is often a certain entertainment value to this easy standard. -JALLEN "All I need is a WAR ON DRUGS reference and I got myself a police thread BINGO." -jljones | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
Ah. You guys use the alternate scoring diagram, in the upper left of the B-27 Target. Everything inside the 8 ring is the bullseye.  | |||
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